Editing Originality (section)

{{short description|Aspect of created or invented works being new or novel}}
{{Redirect|Original}}
'''Originality''' is the aspect of created or invented works that distinguish them from [[replica|reproductions]], clones, forgeries, or substantially [[derivative work]]s.{{Citation needed|date=July 2009|reason=and clarify how or if this differs from the legal concept}} The modern idea of originality is according to some scholars tied to [[Romanticism]],<ref>Gregory (1997) pp. 12-13 quote: {{quotation|Modernist concern with issues of originality develops out of modernism's relation to romanticism, the romantics having invented the notion of originality as we know it.}}</ref> by a notion that is often called [[romantic originality]].<ref name="Smith24">Smith (1924)</ref><ref name="Waterhouse26">Waterhouse (1926)</ref><ref name="Macfarlane07">Macfarlane (2007)</ref> The validity of "originality" as an operational concept has been questioned. For example, there is no clear boundary between "derivative" and "inspired by" or "in the tradition of."  

The concept of originality is both culturally and historically contingent.  For example, unattributed reiteration of a published text in one culture might be considered plagiarism but in another culture might be regarded as a convention of veneration.  At the time of [[Shakespeare]], it was more common to appreciate the similarity with an admired classical work, and Shakespeare himself avoided "unnecessary invention".<ref name="Lynch02" /><ref name="RSC07">[[Royal Shakespeare Company]] (2007) ''The RSC Shakespeare - William Shakespeare Complete Works'', Introduction to the Comedy of Errors, p. 215 quote: <blockquote>while we applaud difference, Shakespeare's first audiences fovoured likeness: a work was good not because it was original, but because it resembled an admired classical exemplar, which in the case of comedy meant a play by Terence or Plautus</blockquote></ref><ref>Lindey, Alexander (1952) ''Plagiarism and Originality''</ref> It wasn't until the start of the 18th century that the concept of originality became an [[Ideal (ethics)|ideal]] in [[Western culture]].<ref name="Lynch02">Lynch, Jack (2002) [http://www.writing-world.com/rights/lynch.shtml ''The Perfectly Acceptable Practice of Literary Theft: Plagiarism, Copyright, and the Eighteenth Century''], in ''[http://www.history.org/foundation/journal/index.cfm Colonial Williamsburg: The Journal of the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation]'' 24, no. 4 (Winter 2002–3), pp. 51–54. Also available online since 2006 at ''Writing World''.</ref><ref>[[Edward Young]] (1759) ''Conjectures on Original Composition''</ref>